Page 12 of Secretary Crush
HUDSON
Monday morning rolls around, and I want to surprise everyone by bringing in a box of donuts. When I enter the office to put the box on the table, Ella is already in for the morning. She’s bent down, digging coffee out of the bottom cabinet. She’s wearing short shorts, and her hair is piled up onto her head, showing off her sexy slender neck. She looks over her shoulder and smiles like she’s actually happy to see me. To me, she’s tempting the beast.
Here I am, a hungry tiger who’s just walked into her area. When she sees me, she doesn’t run or scream. No, she smiles and invites me in. Doesn’t she know who she’s playing with? Does she know how badly I want her? I’ve spent my weekend imagining every way I want to fuck her, and seeing her now is only bringing all those thoughts to the forefront of my mind. I’ve imagined how tight she’d feel wrapped around me, how hot and welcoming she’d be. I’ve imagined the sounds she’d make the moment I slid inside her, and I’ve played it on a loop again and again and again. I can taste her sweetness on my lips, and I can smell her scent on my skin.
“Good morning,” she says, apparently not noticing the way my greedy eyes are drinking her in.
“Morning,” I reply, setting the box on the table. “I brought donuts for everyone. Help yourself.” Without another word, I turn and leave the office, needing to get to work to gain some distance. Her scent of vanilla, sugar, and coconut lingers in the office, so I breathe her in deep when I go in there. It burns its way through my nose, scorching my brain and sealing itself into my memory. I swear, she’s tempting me on purpose.
I head over to my workstation and get busy, picking up where I left off yesterday. I put my headphones in my ears and turn the music up loud enough that I can’t hear any sounds going on around me. I hope to drown out my thoughts of her too, but that almost seems to be impossible.
Throughout the morning, my eyes randomly drift around just to stay aware of my surroundings, and that’s when I see it. The guys basically take turns going into the office. First thing in the morning, Tony goes in. The two of them talk while he fixes his cup of coffee. I grind my teeth when I see her throw her head back and laugh at whatever he says.
It’s not long after Tony walks out that Marvin heads in. He grabs a bottle of water, notices the donuts, and they talk while he stands there and eats one. She doesn’t laugh with him like she did with Tony, and that makes me angry too. Marvin is married. Tony is single. I’d rather see her enjoying the company of a married man more. At least then, I’d know nothing is going on. After Marv is done eating his donut, he takes a long drink of water, and he turns and leaves the office. He says something to the rest of the guys when he comes out, and that causes them all to leave their bikes and head into the office. They all gather around the table and the box of donuts.
I've been wanting to keep them away from her, yet I just gave them all a reason to be in the same room as her. As I work on my bike, my eyes bounce back and forth from the task at hand to her on the other side of the glass windows. She’s sitting at the desk wearing a big smile. Every once in a while, she’ll look at the guys, smile, and laugh. Then out of nowhere, she looks over at me, and we lock eyes. I freeze, knowing I’ve been caught. She doesn’t pull her gaze away, knowing she’s caught. She doesn’t give me a dirty look for staring at her. No, she smiles, and it lights up her green eyes. They shimmer and sparkle, and I swear I see them darken with need. She wets her lips, then bites down on the bottom one. That sexy look is enough to have my dick twitching with excitement.
After several long minutes, she averts her eyes, breaking our connection. Now that I’ve been released from her gaze, I go back to working on the bike in front of me. My heart is racing, and my lungs are pumping a little harder. The thoughts won’t stop.
What was that? Were the guys in there talking about me? Is that why she was staring? Or is it something more? Is it possible she feels the same attraction I do? I’m seven years older than her. Why would she be attracted to someone like me? She’s beautiful, soft, innocent. I’m rough and hard, and I’m covered in sharp edges. Handle me too much, and you’ll get cut. I have to be that way with Jo always coming in and out of my life. If I was any different, she would’ve killed me long ago.
Pushing everything from my head, I turn my back to the office and force myself to get some work done. I spend the rest of the morning like this, refusing to look at any of them. It’s the only way I know how. If I have the chance to look at her, I know I will. If I see the guys around her, I know it’ll just piss me off. It’s easier this way. I don’t pull away from my work until noon.
Once I remove my earbuds from my ears, I turn around to see all the guys gathered in their usual circle, eating lunch. Only this time, they’re not in the garage like usual. They’re gathered in the office. Some of them are sitting around the table while others are leaning against the counter and walls. Tony is sitting on the edge of Ella’s desk as she sits in her chair behind it.
I walk into the office and grab a bottle of water from the mini fridge. “Who ordered pizza?” I ask, looking at the counter that holds four large pizzas.
“We all pitched in,” Tony says. “Help yourself.”
Again, anger washes over me, but I’m not even sure why this time. Instead of letting it get to me, I grab a slice of pizza and have a seat at the chair across from Ella.
“These guys bothering you?” I ask with a smirk.
She rolls her eyes. “They’re just always in here. I can’t get any work done,” she says, but her playful tone tells me she’s not being serious.
“Looks like I’ll have to start writing people up,” I joke.
Tony laughs. “Don’t you two start pulling that shit. We’re friends now. In fact, we ran into one another at the bar last Friday. We all shared about eight pitchers of beer before she took off.”
I look at Ella. “You’re drinking with my crew now?” I lift my brow.
She shrugs. “Well, they’re really convincing when they want to be. They wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
The guys laugh. “The wordnowas not coming out of your mouth,” Tony tells her, and my stomach muscles tighten as rage boils my blood. I know he doesn’t mean it the way it sounds, but that doesn’t stop my initial reaction. I need to figure out how to get this shit out of my head. How to get her out of my head. She isn’t mine. She’s just another employee, and she has no interest in me.
Right when I think that, I find her eyes are back on me. But they’re not locked on mine. No, they’re moving their way around my body. They look at my hands that are in my lap. They move up my forearms, biceps, shoulders, and chest, down to my waist before moving back up to my face. Sure, she could be looking at my tattoos—that’s not unusual for someone who doesn’t have tattoos—but I think it means more. I think she’s checking me out the same way I’ve been checking her out. And when her eyes lock on mine, and she knows she’s been caught, her cheeks flash red as a smile tugs on her lips. Her eyes dash away as embarrassment takes over.
Maybe she does have a thing for me?
How can I find out without crossing the line? I guess I could always ask her to come to my house. I took a few filing cabinets home once the office was getting too full, and they need to be gone through and cleaned out. Hell, I may be able to get rid of them altogether. If she agrees to come to my house, it could mean she likes me. If she doesn’t feel comfortable with that, it would mean she doesn’t.
That doesn’t sound like a foolproof plan, though. She could just feel comfortable coming to my house because I’m her boss and she trusts me. It doesn’t mean she has any kind of feelings for me. I just need to let this whole thing go. If she feels half as much for me as I feel for her, things will come to a head soon enough. Every time I look at her, I have to resist touching her. Hell, every time I look at her, all I want to do is pull her against me and kiss her until my head is dizzy from lack of oxygen. Just picturing it has my heart pounding and goose bumps prickling my skin. I can practically feel how soft her lips are, how sweet her tongue is. I can feel her soft skin beneath my rough hands, and I can smell her scent as it burns its way into my senses.
When our eyes meet again, I wonder what she’s thinking about. She seems to be just as lost in thought as I am. Her cheeks are burning with embarrassment, though, and her hands are slightly shaking as she uncaps her bottle of water and takes a long drink. I finish the slice of pizza in my hand and push myself up. “All right, guys, lunch is over. Let’s get back to work.”
They all get up and toss their napkins and paper plates into the trash. I hold the door open as they start filing out. Ella stands up and throws her things away. I watch as she grabs a disinfecting wipe and cleans the table where the guys were just sitting. She bends over it to wipe the far side, and her shorts tighten around her ass. I have to turn and walk away before I do something I could possibly regret. Back at my bike, I put my earbuds in, and I go back to trying to tune out everything around me, focusing only on my work and getting this bike done as soon as possible.
And as time passes, things stay the same. The guys and Ella seem to become good friends. They’re always hanging out, talking, and laughing. And I’m always off on my own, trying to keep my distance to keep from messing anything up. She seems to put herself in my direct line of sight, and every time she does, I’m growing weaker and weaker. She’s bending over backward to get to me, to talk to me, to be as friendly with me as she is with the guys, but I’m different. I want something I know I can’t have. Instead of teasing myself more, I pull away in hopes of keeping my hands to myself and keeping her in the office.
